Movies

2013 Cinema Q Film Festival: Denver looks at "Cruising," Bishop, more at annual GLBT film fest

Poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) and architect Lota de Macedo Soaresin (Gloria Pires) in "Reaching for the Moon," screening at the Cinema Q Film Fest. (Provided by Wolfe Releasing)

Over the past seven years, the Denver Film Society's Cinema Q program has gone from monthly screenings to a thoughtfully considered and ambitious annual GLBT film festival.

The love child of film society program manager Keith Garcia, this year's four-day fest is arguably the strongest yet.

It opened Thursday with "Before You Know It," PJ Raval's documentary about three aging gay men and the challenges faced by GLBT seniors. It continues through Sunday at the Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E. Colfax Ave.

Among the highlights, some of them sure to inspire lively conversation about identity:

"Interior. Leather Bar": Director Travis Mathews and actor-producer James Franco's 60-minute, nonfiction film does two things: It attempts to reimagine the 40 minutes the movie ratings board made director William Friedkin take out of his controversial 1980 crime thriller "Cruising" in order to get an "R" rating. And it documents the making of that re-creation as a way of engaging tensions between gay and straight male sexuality. Friday's screening will be preceded by Mathews' short "In Their Room/London" and followed by a late-night viewing of Friedkin's movie, which stars Al Pacino as a cop who goes undercover in New York's gay S&M scene. (7:30 p.m. Friday: "In Their Room/London" and "Interior. Leather Bar" with the director in person.

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10 p.m.: "Cruising.")

"Reaching for the Moon": In his emotionally rich drama, Brazilian filmmaker Bruno Barreto ("Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands") recounts the story of American poet laureate Elizabeth Bishop's journey to Brazil where she becomes involved with the architect Lota de Macedo Soares. (7:15 p.m. Saturday.)

"Portrait of Jason": From the archives and beautifully restored comes Shirley Clarke's black-and-white 1967 wonder in which Jason Holliday née Aaron Payne holds forth on life as a gay black man in New York City. Holliday is fascinating and tiresome, indulgent and revealing, painful and touching. (Noon Saturday.)